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Thunderbird POP timeout problem
Tags: I came across a problem today with Mozilla Thunderbird (though not necessarily isolated to this client) and the POP mail server. It came about because a user has been out of the office and not pop’ing his mail to the desktop. The server had accumulated 100MB of email over this time.
The problem
Thunderbird has a default pop timeout of 45 seconds. In that 45s, the client must authenticate, the server must create a lock file, and copy over the mail spool into a temporary file, before Thunderbird can begin downloading the mail. If the server cannot copy the 100MB mail file into a temporary file within the 45second limit the timeout message occurs.
The solution
The solution is logical, but inconveinent to implement. Microsoft Outlook has a nice ‘server timeout’ setting in preferences, but Thunderbird’s is buried in a javascript file in the user’s profile (prefs.js). Editing that file and appending
user_pref(“mail.pop3_response_timeout”, 300);
to the end will increase the timeout to 300 seconds. After relaunching, Thunderbird can successfully download mail without the poplock busy error.
Discussion
8 comments for “Thunderbird POP timeout problem”
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Actually, if you are using Thunderbird 1.5 you can modify the setting of the configuration property through the GUI accessing Tools -> Options -> Advanced and modifying the value of “Connection timeout” (defaults to 60 seconds). This changes mailnews.tcptimeout (which is used instead of mail.pop3_response_timeout ). In previous releases you can install the AboutConfig extension to set the mail.pop3_response_timeout property in a more user-friendly way ( see https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=thunderbird&numpg=10&id=423)
Thank you so much for this. I did not realize that if the timeout was longer the mail server can actually download the data. I had tried what i thought was everything to get the mail to come in, now it has. Thanks a bunch
For reference, on Windows prefs.js is located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1vnxnrtm.default\
*update*
Sorry, that was Firefox prefs,
try this one instead:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\p3ar4zpe.default\
@Hardway: thx
I have the same problem with my TB pop3 account. Very frustrating especially when it worked fine previously. Only yesterday I was able to get email messages by changing to port 20. Setting the port back to the default 25 I was still able to send/receive email until this morning when it was just like hitting a brick wall. Tried all your above suggestions guys but no luck. Any help would be much appreciated. Finally is this a TB specific issue only?
what is all this pop 3 ive been trying my utmost to get all this but simply dont understand what the hell your talking about,my email was put in by an expert . ihave books on computer language but its all too much to understand half the time im using trail and error learning by mistakes . surely theres an easier solution
I am using Thunderbird 3.0, but have had this problem with 2.x as well.. I have modified my mailnews.tcptimeout from 100 to 9000.
Restarted, and still have the same problem.
But get this, I can go start > run > ‘cmd’ > ping mail.mymailserver.com
..and I get ping times below 400 milliseconds. (no lost pings) I know this is high, but I am an expat in China.
If anyone knows an effective solution other than using a virtual private network (VPN) connection, I am very interested in knowing it.
I am a computer technician with a degree, I’ve searched comprehensively and also checked Thunderbirds official pages on this subject.
That being said, if anyone out there isn’t holding a bachellor’s degree in computer repair, it’s unlikely that you will find a solution for this.
Thunderbird simply screwed up by using settings that are unrealistic for anyone that needs to get their mail from a server that’s in a different country.